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DVD Release Date: June 25, 2013

Price: DVD $24.98

Studio: IFC/Mpi

Jose Mota and Salma Hayek try to make it work in As Luck Would Have It.

Salma Hayek (Savages) and popular Spanish comedian Jose Mota star in the 2011 comedy-drama As Luck Would Have It, directed by Spanish cult filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus).

Out of work advertising exec Roberto (Mota) struggles to keep his family afloat and their dire situation a secret from his adoring wife Luisa (Hayek). After yet another dead-end interview, Roberto’s chances for a promising future seem slim – until a freak accident places him at the center of a wild media storm. Realizing his opportunity, Roberto hires a brazen agent to help him leverage his newfound fame into fortune, but Luisa begins to worry about the lengths Roberto will go to for his family’s security.

Equal parts skewering social satire and deeply felt drama,...

The Spark of Life: Iglesia’s Latest a Soap Opera Soap Box

Following on the heels of his successful 2010 award winner The Last Circus, Alex de la Iglesia leaves behind genre for his most straightforward drama effort yet with As Luck Would Have It, a denigration of class and greed that operates nearly exclusively as a mouth piece for the overtly obvious views it continuously espouses. Once again snagging some A-list talent, Iglesia sinks them, along with Kiko de la Rica’s glorious cinematography, into a quagmire of telenovelic proportions. A would be satire, Iglesia bungles melodrama, black comedy, and motifs more at home with Arthur Miller into a heterogeneous mixture of humanity where black and white never fade to grey.

An out of work advertising executive, Roberto (Jose Mota), is desperate to get out of a two year unemployment slump. His ravishingly beautiful and supportive wife, Luisa (Salma Hayek...

Watch new clips from As Luck Would Have It (La chispa de la vida) directed by Alex De La Iglesia, staring Jose Mota and Salma Hayek IFC's drama screenwritten by Randy Feldman opened in limited theaters and VOD on February 1st Juan Luis Galiardo, Fernando Tejero, Tallafé, Antonio Garrido, Carolina Bang and Eduardo Casanova co-star. In As Luck Would Have It, Roberto (famed Spanish comic José Mota) once had a promising career in advertising. But now out of work during the economic downturn, he struggles to keep his family afloat and their dire situation a secret from his adoring wife Luisa (Salma Hayek). After yet another dead end interview, it seems like reality will come crashing down on Roberto – until a freak accident places him at the center of a wild media storm. Realizing his opportunity, Roberto hires a brazen agent to help him leverage his new found fame into fortune,...

Watch new clips from As Luck Would Have It (La chispa de la vida) directed by Alex De La Iglesia, staring Jose Mota and Salma Hayek IFC's drama screenwritten by Randy Feldman opened in limited theaters and VOD on February 1st Juan Luis Galiardo, Fernando Tejero, Tallafé, Antonio Garrido, Carolina Bang and Eduardo Casanova co-star. In As Luck Would Have It, Roberto (famed Spanish comic José Mota) once had a promising career in advertising. But now out of work during the economic downturn, he struggles to keep his family afloat and their dire situation a secret from his adoring wife Luisa (Salma Hayek). After yet another dead end interview, it seems like reality will come crashing down on Roberto – until a freak accident places him at the center of a wild media storm. Realizing his opportunity, Roberto hires a brazen agent to help him leverage his new found fame into fortune,...

All he wanted to do was surprise his loving, supportive wife with a reservation at the old hotel they had once stayed, but when Roberto, played by comedian Jose Mota, gets into a freak accident, he goes from being a nobody to an instant celebrity.

Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia’s film, As Luck Would Have It (La Chispa de la Vida), is an example of our society’s willingness to go as low to sell even our own dignity for the right price.

That old hotel has now become a museum and the outdoor coliseum is where Roberto is stuck after his unfortunate accident. The media, in attendance for the grand opening of the museum now swarm around Roberto, making him the news of the hour. Even his friend who rejects his job application earlier that day changes his mind and offers him the job.

It’s been...

As Luck Would Have It stars Jose Mota as Roberto, an advertising executive who has been struck hard by the down turn in the economy. Almost bankrupt and unable to find work, he calls up an old friend in search of employment but the meeting goes badly and Jose leaves angry and deflated. He takes a detour in hopes of booking the hotel where he and his wife spent their honeymoon, one last ditch attempt to find some happiness before his world goes to the dogs, but finds that the building has been torn down and replaced by a museum that is still under construction. A series of unfortunate choices end with Jose lying in the middle of an incomplete classic amphitheatre at the centre of his own very personal Greek tragedy (or comedy depending on how you look at it): his head is impaled on an iron rod...

Images from Lawless, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Brave.

There's also set photos of Gavin Hood at work on Ender's Game and Dwayne Johnson cooking a severed hand for Pain and Gain along with blue prints for The Amazing Spider-Man web shooters and twelve character posters from The Expendables 2

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"Universal Pictures has pushed back the release of the Keanu Reeves-led '47 Ronin' from November 21st 2012 to February 8th 2013, while the Ryan Gosling-led drama 'The Place Beyond the Pines' has scored a September 7th release in Spain (no word yet on a Us date)…" (full details)

"James Franco says that he hopes Rihanna will play a small part in Seth Rogen's 'Jay And Seth Vs.

Álex de la Iglesia’s “As Luck Would Have It” features, in supporting roles, Salma Hayek and Carolina Bang, two of the most ravishing and talented Spanish-language actresses to ever grace the screen. Most viewers are well aware of Ms. Hayek, who has aged gracefully into Hollywood’s demeaning mother-ghetto for actresses over the age of 35. Few know of Ms. Bang, who was the centerpiece of de la Iglesia’s last film, the criminally-insane “The Last Circus.” Both command the screen with old school Hollywood glamour and mature sexuality, and yet neither manages to obscure the machinations of de la Iglesia’s sharp media satire. This, as Queen once sang long ago, is a kind of magic.

Jose Mota is Roberto, a one-time ad exec who hasn’t had success in many moons. Unbeknownst to his supportive wife, the couple are in dire financial straits, Roberto long living off the...

Can a freak accident help a washed-up ad executive help to care for his family?

The only thing more painful than looking for a job is coming home without one.

So says Luisa (Salma Hayek) the dutiful wife, of a down-and-out, long-on-the-dole ad man, Roberto (Jose Mota), in cult director Alex De La Iglesia's (The Last Circus) latest, As Luck Would Have It.

Much like the main protagonist in Boris Rodriguez' Eddie The Sleeping Walking Cannibal, Roberto is a former boy wonder, who, inexplicably, turned into a one-trick pony,...

You've read about the Galas & Competitions and taken a tour of the Cinemania & Viewpoint sections, now we conclude our TFF2012 preview series with a look at a handful of the films on tap in the enormous Spotlight program. Look for our top picks tomorrow and enjoy the festival coverage! Spotlight As Luck Would Have It Alex de la Iglesia's follow-up to the wildly popular and award winning The Last Circus is this dark satire starring Salma Hayak and Jose Mota. Mansome Morgan Spurlock dives into the world of manscaping (that's male beauty grooming for the uninitiated) with help from pals Zach Galifianakis, Will Arnett, Paul Rudd, Jason Bateman, and Judd Apatow. Deadfall Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky's follow-up to his Foreign Language Oscar...

This year's Tribeca Film Festival carries one of its strongest line-ups in years. In addition to films from Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin circuit, there's also a wealth of U.S. premieres or lesser-known festival movies in the line-up that look just as promising this time around; after a relatively weak SXSW, it looks like the East Coast is getting some of the good stuff.

Below, you'll find 15 films that seem among the most intriguing Tribeca has to offer this year. Of course, we can't speak for their quality as yet, but they certainly look promising at this point at time. And for the record, we haven't included the high-profile opening and closing films -- "The Five-Year Engagement" and "The Avengers" -- partly because they're getting more than enough attention elsewhere, and partly because we've already seen both (although can't review them just yet -- keep your eyes peeled...

Salma Hayek is in Berlin this week promoting her new movie at the city’s annual film festival, Berlinale.

The Spanish-language film “La Chispa De La Vida,” or “As Luck Would Have It,” follows an unemployed advertising executive (Jose Mota) as he looks for work, ultimately becoming the focal point of media attention when he falls into a precarious situation. Hayek plays the encouraging wife who is horrified when she discovers the media circus that surrounds her husband.

Hayek walked the red carpet at the festival alongside her costars — one of which is much taller than the 5-foot-2-inch actress. Caroline Herrera Bang towered over Hayek, effectively dwarfing her, as The Daily Mail reports. (See the photo in the slideshow below).

But the Mexican-born actress certainly makes up for her short stature with her performance in the film, receiving much praise for her role. Variety called her “the real standout...

The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) and the other nominations for the 2012 Goya Awards (Premios Goyas) have been announced. The 26th Annual Goya Awards (Premios Goyas), presented by the Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de España (Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences), is “Spain’s main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards.” The awards will be handed out on February 19, 2012 in Madrid, Spain.

The full listing of the 2012 Goya Awards (Premios Goyas) nominations is below.

Film

La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In), Pedro Almodovar

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest for the Wicked), Enrique Urbizu

La voz dormida (The Sleeping Voice), Benito Zambrano

Blackthorn. Sin destino (Blackthorn), Mateo Gil

Director

Pedro Almodovar, La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In)

Benito Zambrano, La voz dormida...

Less than a year since word first surfaced that The Last Circus director Alex de la Iglesia would be shooting a black comedy with Salma Hayek the film is now complete - or close to it - and among the first selections for the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival.Titled La Chispa De La Vida - literally The Spark Of Life in English, though it was announced with the English title of As Luck Would Have It - the picture stars Hayek as the wife of Jose Mota who plays a down on his luck publicist who slips and falls in an old Roman era forum, impaling his head on a metal rod. He does not die but cannot be moved. And, bizarrely, he views...